My Way of Life
by AmeliaQ
Summary: Bay has only ever known being the daughter of a drunk. Now she is starting at Carlton for the deaf against her will. While struggling with losing her hearing, she stumbles upon someone who will make her life the best and the worst.


If anyone had stood outside of Carlton three quarters before the bell rang they would have seen a nervous black haired girl walking on the pavement in front of the school getting her act together. Her fingers fidgeting, then _trying to_ straighten her hair a bit. Taking a deep breath, this is going to be okay she told herself and then she took the step into the school ground.

Bay Vasquez was properly your normal teenager from east river side, she was of Italian and Puerto Rican descents came from no money and with a mother who tried putting the bottle down at least once a month. The father had split when she was six and was now only in touch with the guilt cart at birthdays and Christmases. But she had always handled it just fine, coping was her thing, she might be a bit of a narcissist, but she had learned to bounce back.  
That was what she did through her paintings; she had made her room a studio. Her grandma insisted that the reason why she was so good was because of all the fumes she inhaled, her bed was madras she could put up against the wall so there would be more room.

Her foot was following the beat that came out of the administration office, Eric Clapton she would have to guess. The school was bright, intimate and a lot more hygienic then what she was used to. She kinda wished someone was here with her, not her mom though, she was still sleeping of a hangover on the couch and her grandmother would properly only scare with her heavy sarcasm. It was times like these she wished she had a dad, a normal one, someone with a boring job who was always on time and had had the same job for 12 years. A reliable parent.

"Bay Vasquez?" the woman from the office said the music now turned off. "Yes, that is me." I said smiling brightly glad that this woman spoke. "I'm the principal, Rose Kemberg, if you would please be kind and follow me." Snapping close the notebook, I had been writing in I followed the principal. She was a determent lady that was for sure "We need these signed by the end of the week "The principal handed over the documents. "Has to be a parent or guardian and under no circumstances you." She said looking over her glasses to get eye contact with me.

Usually I would have a snappy comeback, but even I understood the value of staying on good terms with the principal one my first day. So I nodded, obedient little me.  
"Ms. Vasquez we put the right to family and personal privacy very high on our list." She said, continuing; "Me and me alone know about your condition due to the paperwork, I can only encourage you to at least also inform our counselor on the school, but this is completely your decision"  
I smiled a bit at that, my decision, my choice and that basically meant no one was going to know anything.  
"So Ms. Vasquez" she said with a sigh "your Tuition has been paid for the rest of the year by the state, if you keep up, maybe next year will be too. Don't fall behind" She said giving me the nod to leave.

I was taken aback by the many people who swamped the hall way gesturing, but only making a small buzzing.  
And so it all began…

Looking around the grounds a pang of loneliness searched through my body, I was pretty much on my own here. Looking down at my lunch, before wrapping it up, I wasn't going to eat anyway. To say the first two lessons had been bad would be an understatement, they had been horrifying. Now I was pretty much on my own.  
"Hey Bay, mind if I sit here?" Someone asked me as I turned around I couldn't help but smile, it was the guy from my English class. Dark brown haired, handsome with the strong features I would love to draw. "Thank you for helping me in class today." He said all smiles; it was apparently contagious because suddenly I found myself smiling like an idiot. I got my act together; "Not that I was that much help." Which was the truth, my ASL was not very well developed. "You are a lot better than me though" That really wasn't saying much, cute unnamed guy was pretty bad. "Yeah I know what you think, that I suck at ASL, but that is why I am here to improve" Okay cute guy gets pretty quick defensive, that's good to know.  
"You said you had a family member who deaf, right?" I stiffened, but nodded starting to unwrap my sandwich once again, so I could look busy and avoid the questions. "You don't want to talk about it?" No shit Sherlock, but I smiled politely and shook my head "My brother began going deaf two years ago and now it's time we start communicating only in sign language with him so I figured this would be the place to learn." I wondered for brief moment weather or not my mom would do the same for me, put in the same effort as this guy did. I was certain she had every intention of learning ASL, but that didn't mean she would be able to get her act together to do it. Then I pushed the scenario of me and my mom not being able to communicate away and gave the guy all my focus. He was currently playing with the left over ketchup, making smiley faces, having already eaten the fries.  
"I thought they would be nicer here, y'know?" I gave him a weird look, telling him my confusion. "These people" he said gesturing around to the tables around us. "They know what it are like to be outsiders, why make us outsiders if they know the feeling?"  
"It's called and evil cycle" I said "and honestly this is a lot better than at my old school…" I never got any further as the lights started blinking, signaling the end of lunch break. As we stood up I realized I still didn't know the cute guy's name.

He must have sensed my hesitation; "what is it Bay?" Embarrassment flooded through me and I could feel cheeks redden. "What is your name?" he started laughing, drawing attention to us from the crowd of student on their way to class. "Teo my name is Teo." He said laughing and then he was gone in the crowd.

Not something I was used to, even the library was a lot louder at my old school


End file.
